Hawaii Online Advertising

Most people know that I live and breathe Hawaii SEO but I also EAT it as well.

This is how I typically fix lunch at the office.

I usually start with eatable text. Every SEO knows how much Google loves fresh, eatable text. The fresher the better! If you don’t have a small fridge in your office, you will need to make a special trip to the store on a daily basis. That’s what I do.

Keep In mind… You don’t want to overcook the text. It’s best to boil it down in an effort to achieve the optimum keyword density but it loses its flavor if you over-do it. For best results, chill in refrigerator until serving. (Since I don’t have a fridge in the office, I just blow on it for a while until it cools off.)

Next, I break out a jar of my “Hawaii SEO, Secret Sauce” and serve over the eatable text. Unfortunately… The SEO Secret Sauce doesn’t have much of a shelf-life and without proper refrigeration and it tends to go sour.

Spam is also one of my guilty pleasures but very SEO knows that Spam isn’t exactly “SEO health food”. It won’t kill you to have a small taste every now and then but don’t go crazy and eat the entire can in one sitting. Keep in mind… The can clearly states that you should refrigerate the unused Spam immediately after opening. (Or maybe that’s the cat food) Either way, it’s a good idea. [Note to self: The day-old Spam on the counter-top is starting to look a little rancid.]

Fore more information about “SEO Overkill” please see my cautionary post titled “I Think Therefore I Spam“.

Then I break out a bottle of lukewarm “Link Juice” and pour myself a glass to wash it all down. (BTW - Link juice is best served chilled.) Some of my friends seem to think I have a Link Juice “Drinking Problem” but I don’t see it as being a problem at all, unless the bottle is empty… Then that would be a real problem.

Also… If you’re fortunate enough to have a small refrigerator in your office, you should always keep an open box of baking soda in it because every SEO knows how much Google loves fresh content. (That’s what I would do if I had one)

My lunch hour would be so much happier if I only had a small refrigerator in my office but there is no need to grovel for one.

Dan Perry is giving away a Mini Google refrigerator. Dan just wants to know what people would do with it so he can pick a worthy recipient.

Barry Schwartz, Tamar Weinberg, and Matt McGee are helping Dan pick the winner.

Dave.

I would encourage everyone in the travel industry to rush out and buy this amazing book, but… I have no idea where you can get a copy. I was given a complimentary copy of the book today by the folks who put the project together at the PhocusWright travel conference in Orlando. And no… You can’t borrow it. Get your own.
So… This is a brief synopsis of the book. “A collection of thoughts, musings, quotes and recommendations from the most influential travel & tourism bloggers.”
The Tips from the T-List is being created and edited by Stephen Joyce, Jens Thraenhart, Mathieu Ouellet, Yeoh Siew Hoon, Kevin May, and independently published by Rezgo with articles from more great travel industry bloggers than I have time to link too.
What you can expect to find in the book… (If you can get a copy)

• Information, tips & tricks about destination and travel blogging
• Travel Marketing & Social media insights
• Internet marketing advice for travel blogs and websites
• Travel 2.0 – What it is and how it works
• Technology tips for small tour operators
• Links to great resources

Maybe someone involved with the project will post a link in the comments for where to buy it.

Aloha,
Dave.

Shiela at GoVisitHawaii.com just blog tagged me to post my desktop image & Google just added some cool desktop widgets so I thought I would post my screen shot.

I took the picture out the window of the HanoHano Room restaurant at the Sheraton Waikiki. All I can say is the automatic settings on the cheap, new digital cameras are getting better all the time.

Enjoy!

My buddy Graywolf has volunteered to answer questions…

So… Here it goes.

In My Opinion… The best Social Media conversations are not instigated by folks in the SEO industry, they seem to be dominated by the people in Online PR because they seem to be the ones who have the most to win or loose. I’m also following a few academic folks who are into the sociology aspect of social networking.

My problem is that I’m new to Online PR so I need some help figuring out who the real thought leaders are in the industry and how I can apply the principals of online public relations and possibly even sociology to Internet Marketing.

Here are some of the (Non SEO) PR blogs I’ve been following.
In Alphabetical Order…

• Apophenia
• Augmented Social Cognition
• BuzzNetworker
• Influential Interactive Marketing
• PR 2.0
• Unit Structures
• Web Strategy by Jeremiah

Who do you like on my list, not like? What are you reading? How does it all apply to Search Marketing?

Aloha,
Dave.

I just received an email from a small business owner who is looking for advice on what direction he should go with the online advertising campaign.

That is a very tough question because the ad campaign is small and small things tend to be hard to measure so it’s very difficult for me to give good advice in these situations.

The problem is trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t when you only have a small sample size to work with.

Large advertisers have the advantage in these situations. If two sets of ads each got 10,000 clicks and one got 200 conversions and the other got 300. The one with 300 conversions is the winner.

On the other hand… A small advertiser might only get a few clicks per day. If two sets of ads are running for a week and each got 10 clicks but one got 2 conversions and the other got 3… It makes no difference because the result is within the margin of error. You would need to run the test for several months.

The math required to do statistic is beyond me but here are some simple situations.

1. Lower margin of error requires a larger sample size.
   If 90 out of 100 people agree on something, you can likely believe it. The closer it gets to 50/50, the larger the sample size you will need to overcome the margin of error.
2. Higher confidence level requires a larger sample size.
   If 3 out of 5 people agree on something, you can’t be too sure. If 300 out of 500 people agree, you can have more confidence in the result.

Aaron Wall had a great post on the subject a while back. He ran two identical ads against each other and one performed three times better the other. (If your total sample size for a split test is only 16 clicks, anything can happen.)

Here are some tools that may help you do the math.

http://www.splittester.com/
http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm
http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html
http://www.surveyguy.com/SGcalc.htm

On the bright side… If you’re dealing with small numbers, you don’t have much to loose by trusting your instincts and going with your gut until things start to pick up.

Seth Godin had a great post the other day about what he calls the “T-Shirt Rule“. Seth says “It’s a simple test of whether you’ve created a remarkable experience: “Would I buy the t-shirt?” For most things… My answer would be “No”.

However… I got an email from the folks over at the Earners Forum the other day announcing that they would be giving everyone who had 500 pr more posts a free Earners Forum T-Shirt. Unfortunately, I usually just do a lot of lurking but not much posting so I didn’t qualify. The Earners Forum is certainly t-shirt worthy so I asked if they would be willing to trade for some chocolate covered Macadamia nuts, and they DID so I sent them some of Island Princess’ world-famous Mele Macs.

Lee Dodd and his crew liked the nuts so much, they sent me more than one shirt. (Bonus!)

I got several complements on it while walking around Waikiki from some big earners who were here on vacation. One guy who manages a large network of financial and investment blogs was particularly impressive.

Here is a picture my three year old boy took of me in front of Diamond Head with my new t-shirt. (You know you want one)

So… Since I have more than one shirt… I’ll be giving the other away! All you need to do is post a link to my blog and then post something in the comments for where I can find the link and it’s all yours. If more than one person links to me, I’ll pick someone at random.

Aloha,
Dave.

Google Reader now has cool trends.

I guess that works out to about 40 articles per day. Believe it or not… I read all 130 of these feeds periodically depending on the title of the post and how much time I have. I usually spend at least two or three hours a day reading about search engine and affiliate marketing. Blogs come and go from the list periodically as well. Almost all of these feeds are search marketing blogs except for Weird Asian News and a few others. This is where I get most of my search and affiliate marketing information.

I’ve been meaning to create a post about all the great blogs that I subscribe to and read but I’ve been procrastinating because I know it will take quite a while. Luckily… Lee Odden at the Online Marketing Blog did the job for me in a post called “Must Read Search Marketing Blogs“. Lee on the other hand tries his best to read 250 plus (and counting) SEO, SEM, social media and online PR blogs. (Amazing!) Almost all the blogs I read are listed there.

Barry Schwartz also has a great list of about 175 search blogs that he calls his Link Farm. It’s a real honor for me to be listed.

Happy Reading!

Aloha,
Dave.

As 2006 comes to a close, several bloggers feel compelled to reflect on the last year and either list some of their best posts or the best posts on a particular subject like I did with the previous post on “The Best Blog Traffic & Monetization Posts of 2006“.

So here are the some of the posts that I’ve found so far.

Seth Godin has a post called “Your Favorite Seth Posts, 2006” where his readers can vote for the best post. He has some real gems in there. Most of the posts are focused on the topic of marketing in general but 99% of his posts on the list will change your mind about how you conduct business. One of my favorites that didn’t make the list is a video of him at Google.

Copyblogger has a post called “The Best of Copyblogger (According to Time Magazine’s Person of the Year)” You. I can’t say enough great things about this blog. The advice is extremely actionable. I have several of these pages bookmarked and read them over and over.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has a very long post called “Best of ProBlogger - 2006” where he reconstructs the entire year month-by-month.

Local SEO, Mike Belasco, has a post called “Top 10 Local Search Engine Optimization Blog Posts for 2006“. In my opinion this is an extremely relevant topic for most businesses in Hawaii. (The vast majority of business and services related queries will usually have a city or state in front of the query to keep the results relevant.)

The Official Google blog, Inside AdSense has a post called “Best of 2006” where they narrow down the Top 10 highlights, not listed in any particular order. It’s always good to get the story directly from the source.

Chris Boggs who covers the search news posted links to the “Top SEM Stories of 2006” on his new blog.

Lee Odden posts his “Top TopRank Blog Posts for 2006” as well as some other year end stats for his blog.

Eric Goldman and John Ottaviani posted on the Technology & Marketing Law Blog the “Top Cyberlaw Developments for 2006” as a two part post.

Update: I was just over at Todd Malicoat’s blog and found a few more worth mentioning in his post about his 2006 Predictions & Review.

Techipedia created a huge post called Internet Marketing Best [Blog] Posts of 2006: The Year in Review. All I can say is WOW! It will take me a while to digest this one. I’n sure I’ll find a few new blogs worth reading in the process as well.

Andy Beal posted the Marketing Pilgrim’s Top 10 Posts of 2006

Chris at 10e20 posted the 101 Biggest Stories in Search 2006. It’s a huge list. Wow! It’s a real walk down memory lane.

Friends ask me all the time about monetizing a blog. They either have a blog already or would like to start one with the goal of earning money. Graywolf probably has the best advice I’ve seen on the subject of monetization here at the very bottom of this post.

Graywolf’s advise is to not worry about monetizing the traffic at first and just focus on building traffic for the first six months or year. (People are much more likely to link to your blog if it does not have ads, and why bother setting up the ads if there is no audience to click on them anyway?) After it gets some links and regular traffic, then start placing ads on the site gradually.

There seems to be two main ways to go. You can focus all your attention on one blog that you hope will earn an impressive profit or lower the bar and create several, where the combined profit is impressive. The idea of only making a few bucks per day, but on many blogs sometimes never occurs to people. Both strategies work. It’s just a matter of personal preference.

Below are links on the subject that have been piling up in my Bookmarks so I thought that since it’s the end of the year, I would clean out that folder and post “The Best Blog Traffic & Monetization Posts of 2006″.

Enjoy!

Monetizing Blog Traffic

• First impressions count by The Google AdSence Blog
• Google Adsense Tips, Tricks, and Secrets by Graywolf
• How to Design Your AdSense Ads by Problogger
• Affiliate Marketing Tools by Stuntdubl
• Other Advertising Networks Besides Google AdSense by John Chow
• It’s An Advertising Bonanza! by John Chow
• StumbleUpon Kicks Ass by Greg Hartnett
• Get Perpetual Traffic on Sumbleupon for Ten Bucks by First Page Fitness
• Monetizing with Feedvertising by Top Rank Blog
• How to: Make Money From Your Blog by BoydCreative
• Are you a great Webmaster or Online Marketer? By Hawaii SEO

Copywriting Tips for Blogs

• 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang by Copyblogger
• 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work by Copyblogger
• 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work by Copyblogger
• 10 Web Tools to Help Generate Blog Content Ideas by SEOmoz
• How to Eliminate the Echo Chamber by Problogger
• Blogging in Bunches by Problogger
• Adding an “About” Page by Problogger
• How to Write Your “About Me” Page by Problogger
• Do’s and Do NOTs of Blogging from the Cre8asite Forrums
• How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic by Copyblogger
• The Smart Way to Create a Sense of Urgency by Copyblogger

Blog marketing Tips

• Blogging for Beginners by Problogger
• 7 Ways to Optimize Your Blog by Folksonomy
• What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content by Lorelle on Wordpress
• 5 ways to building a better blog by Pronet Advertising
• 25 tips for marketing your blog by The Online marketing Blog
• How a Best Posts Page Will Increase Your Blog Subscribers by Stuntdubl
• The 5 deadly sins of blogging by Pronet Advertising
• 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch

Blog marketing Tools

• Crazyegg
• The RSS button maker by The Online marketing Blog
• Links to Weblog Promotion Tools by Stuntdubl
• Adding Social Bookmarking Icons to News Feeds by SEO Egghead
• MyBlogLogging by Pronet Advertising

List of Blog Marketing Links

• A - Z of Professional Blogging by Problogger

Blog Directory Links

• Best of the Web Blog Directory
• Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites by Robin Good
• 223 Places to List Your Blog by Stephan Miller
• Directories with affiliate programs

WordPress Plugins
(Surprisingly… there is very little repetition between the lists)

• SEO Plugins for Wordpress by Graywolf
• Essential SEO-Related Plugins for WordPress by SEO Egghead